Framsden Village American Elm

Our small Suffolk community of just 300 people chose to place the special Jubilee tree next to the Framsden village sign, which was designed by the children seven years ago.

The 66 pupils of Helmingham School, with their teachers, prepared songs and poems and helped to plan a memorable tree planting ceremony.

We are fortunate to have beautiful countryside with ancient meadows and oak trees. Old elm trees used to mark our parish boundaries and we recorded a row of four healthy pollarded elms during a veteran tree survey in 1998.

We chose a disease-resistant American species for our Jubilee tree as a way of restoring elms to our landscape.

The smaller children are fascinated to contemplate how tall the tree will be as they grow up into adulthood. Some of the older children can tell them of trees planted at the school when they were their age.

The woodland group already leases a small piece of woodland from the Helmingham Estate to mark the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. We have worked hard on this community woodland as a place for the village to enjoy throughout the seasons. The Diamond Jubilee elm will be a feature for those journeying through our village.